Coinbase officially launched its perpetual contract trading service yesterday, claiming that it fully complies with the regulatory requirements of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). This move allows U.S. retail investors to participate in the world's largest cryptocurrency leveraged derivatives market on a compliant platform for the first time, and also symbolizes an important institutional breakthrough in the U.S. crypto market.
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ToggleBreaking through regulatory walls: Coinbase launches perpetual contract trading in the United States
In the past few years, American investors could only watch overseas traders freely use perpetual futures on major offshore exchanges such as Binance or Bybit to hedge risks and amplify returns with leverage, but were blocked due to local regulatory restrictions. Now, Coinbase has become the first US exchange approved by the CFTC to allow retail investors to participate in cryptocurrency perpetual futures.
This new service was launched by Coinbase Financial Markets (CFM) and emphasizes compliance, security and retail-friendliness. Users can now quickly activate derivatives functions through their existing Coinbase accounts.
Product design targets retail investors: low threshold, high flexibility, easy to use
Coinbase initially launched two contract products: nano BTC-PERP based on Bitcoin and nano ETH-PERP based on Ethereum. The smaller unit design lowers the capital threshold and helps retail investors participate in leveraged trading of mainstream crypto assets with less capital.
The announcement pointed out that these contract products have three major features:
No monthly expiration date: The contract is designed with a "5-year long-term" to simulate the logic of holding positions without a deadline, eliminating the trouble of changing positions in traditional futures and making trading strategies more flexible.
Up to 10x leverage: Support leverage operations to enhance capital efficiency. For metal futures such as silver and gold, up to 20x leverage can be enabled.
Fees as low as 0.02%: creating the most competitive entry threshold and transaction costs in the market.
Competition between Coinbase and Kraken is heating up
Coinbase is not the only one rushing into the US compliant contract market. In April this year, Kraken launched its own CFTC-regulated foreign exchange perpetual futures contracts through the Kraken Pro platform. It can be seen that both companies are eager to share this huge but long-restricted market in the field of derivatives.
The competition between these two established US exchanges goes far beyond this. From one-stop wallet applications to the US stock tokenization market, Kraken first took the lead in cooperating with Backed's xStocks product to launch tokenized US stock trading, and then released the payment application "Krak App", focusing on instant payment, asset management and income accounts.
( Kraken launches Krak App: one-click cross-border crypto payments, and 10% return on idle funds )
Subsequently, Coinbase announced that it was seeking approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to provide tokenized stock services; and its Coinbase Wallet integrated the Base L2 ecosystem for brand reshaping and upgraded to the "Base App", combining social media, instant transactions, AI assistants and USDC payments and other application scenarios.
Today, perpetual contracts are gradually landing in the United States, and local retail investors finally have a safe and legal channel for derivatives trading. It also symbolizes a key step for the crypto market to move from the "gray area" into an institutionalized framework.
Risk Warning
Cryptocurrency investment carries a high degree of risk. Its price may fluctuate drastically and you may lose all your capital. Please assess the risk carefully.
Will the NFT market regain its former glory? Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penquins , believes the answer is yes. In an interview with Blockworks, Luca Netz pointed out that the NFT craze in 2020 and 2021 may happen again. In addition to NFT, Netz is also confident in the development of crypto games. He emphasized that the game market has stronger mass appeal and scale potential, and will become an important engine to promote the mainstreaming of the crypto industry.
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TogglePudgy Penguins transforms from NFT project to IP licensing agency
Pudgy Penquins was originally just an NFT series on Ethereum, but after Netz took over, it has transformed into a diversified intellectual property licensing brand. The IP content covers games, social videos, children's books and plush toys, etc. The brand development has far exceeded the original positioning of NFT.
The fat penguin plush toy is not the end, but just one part of the brand strategy
Although Pudgy Penguins has achieved good sales results in the physical toy market, conquering the children's toy market is not the ultimate goal. Netz sees it as a strategic tool to enhance brand influence, especially in situations outside the screen, by achieving cross-generational cultural penetration through the sale of physical toys.
Looking to challenge mainstream IPs such as Pokémon and Hello Kitty
Netz said Pudgy Penguins will compete with Doge and Pepe in the meme coin market; the long-term goal is to target global mainstream heavyweight IPs such as Pokémon and Hello Kitty. "Crypto native" is just the starting point, and expanding to a wider consumer market is the core of the future blueprint.
Igloo Inc. estimates revenue of $50 million
Igloo Inc., led by Netz, owns Pudgy Penguins, Ethereum Layer 2 protocol Abstract, and NFT licensing platform Overpass, and is expected to achieve a revenue target of $50 million by 2025. This achievement shows that its cross-platform and cross-field development strategy has begun to bear fruit.
The physical consumer market is a blue ocean for encrypted IP
Netz pointed out that compared with decentralized finance (DeFi), the market in the crypto industry that directly contacts consumers contains greater business opportunities, and the value and income that consumer-oriented entrepreneurship can create are considered to have greater potential.
Create a Crypto brand owned by all people
Netz's vision is to allow every cryptocurrency user to own Pudgy Penguins' IP or the related Memecoin "PENGU". Starting from the native community and the household consumer market, the brand is gradually moving towards globalization and daily life, trying to establish the next crypto brand with real cultural penetration.
Why Pudgy Penguins can go further?
Compared with most NFTs that remain at the hype level, Pudgy Penguins has demonstrated a clearer brand strategy and execution. Starting from pure digital assets, it quickly expanded to physical products and mainstream markets, established a brand image, and broke the limitation that crypto projects often only rotate within the community.
Pudgy Penguins does not rely on short-term speculative value, but continues to invest in the in-depth management of intellectual property rights and content creation, from toys, books to games, and gradually plans long-term brand assets. In addition, the management team has the ability to manage cultural and creative products and clearly understands the connection between Web3 consumers and the mass market, which is the key lack of other NFTs.
Most importantly, Pudgy Penguins uses NFT as a launchpad, not as the only product form. After the NFT craze subsides, it can still extend the product life cycle with IP and truly move towards the direction of "the next Pokémon or Hello Kitty."
These qualities make Pudgy Penguins one of the few IP brands that has the potential to evolve from crypto-native to global IP, rather than just another short-lived meteor in the NFT market.
Risk Warning
Cryptocurrency investment carries a high degree of risk. Its price may fluctuate drastically and you may lose all your capital. Please assess the risk carefully.
